Daniel Levy may be set to make board room change at Tottenham amid Amanda Staveley latest - Kieran Maguire
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Amanda Staveley is eyeing a Premier League comeback and has Tottenham in her crosshairs.
It is easy to see why the North London club are seemingly her top target. Daniel Levy is a divisive figure among fans but his reputations in the world of football finance and business is second to none.
Via her investment vehicle PCP Capital Partners, Staveley has reportedly raised £500m through a consortium of Middle Eastern and United States-based backers.
Since the move to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2019, the growth in Spurs’ revenue has been remarkably resilient – even with a pandemic and several season outside the Champions League.
Silverware may continue to allude them, but that will not dissuade the pool of high net wroth groups and individuals who are targeting minority investment in Spurs.
Their rapidly maturing commercial operation and growing appeal to an overseas fanbase thanks to carefully planted seeds has in recent years is paying off.
As far as private wealth is concerned, Daniel Levy and ENIC are in mid-table in the Premier League, but are punching above their weight in terms of the metrics investors use to evaluate business.
Commercial income is absolutely central to the perception of them as a blue-chip asset. And Spurs could soon welcome a new face into the boardroom to help them further in this department.
Spurs new commercial chief set for boardroom role?
In February this year, Spurs announced – in a remarkable blunt, one-sentence statement – that chief commercial officer Todd Kline was set to leave the club.
The potential reason for the prosaic announcement became apparent after it emerged that Kline was joining rivals Chelsea.
Kline has only just begun work at Stamford Bridge after completing his gardening leave at Spurs, with the club he has now formally departed still yet to name his replacement.
TBR Football understands that Spurs will soon name a new chief commercial officer. It is not known, however, whether they will take a seat on Spurs’ board of directors as Kline did.
“Commercial revenue is one area where clubs have an element of control,” said Kieran Maguire, an industry insider and football finance lecturer at Liverpool University.
“Therefore, having someone with experience in the role and can communicate at ‘C’ level is essentially
“I would imagine the commercial director will have a board position because the decisions they make are significant financially in the long term.”
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Tottenham stadium naming rights: CCO’s top priority
When Kline joined a little over three years ago, his self-professed main agenda was to secure a stadium naming rights deal, with Spurs targeting £20-25m per year.
Will that remain the new chief commercial officer’s top priority? And why might this would-be deal in particular mean Spurs should give their newest executive a seat on the board.
Kieran Maguire said: “If you’re signing a stadium naming rights deal or shirt deal, these tend to be long-term arrangements.
“Because of that, they have ramifications for the club for many years, so you need someone who can oversee that strategy.
“For a club like Spurs, who have spectacularly increased their commercial revenue since moving to the new stadium, commercial income can have a dramatic effect on the budget and therefore results on the pitch.”
The latest with Amanda Staveley’s part-takeover ambitions
It emerged in July that Staveley wants to buy into Tottenham, with Levy believed to value the club at £3.75bn.
If the financier has indeed raised £500m in capital, that would get her only a small minority stake in Spurs, not even necessarily enough to guarantee her a seat on the board and significant voting power.
Given that she has repeatedly said she wants a hands-on role, Spurs might not be ideal.
Indeed, overreaching into almost every department was reportedly among the reason she was ousted at Newcastle.
In the latest developments, however, Staveley has restructured the portfolio of business linked to her involvement in football, with some suggesting that is a precursor to a formal offer for Spurs.
She has also been spotted at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as a guest of ENIC and Levy’s for the NFL’s London Games, of which she is believed to be a fan as a spectacle and business prospect.
